Printing in a network environment typically involves selecting a network printer from a network computer and directing the printing of a document to the selected printer. The document is sent to the selected printer, where it may wait in a queue behind other documents awaiting printing.
In a variation on this theme, U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,832 describes a system in which documents rendered for printing are maintained on a print spooler. A print polling device may remotely access the print spooler. Under certain circumstances, the print polling device can receive documents from the spooler for printing on a printer connected with the polling device.
Many modern networks feature combinations of local area networks (LANs) connected by one or more wide area networks (WANs). Such networks often feature multiple print servers, each of which may be associated with multiple printers, computer, workstations and the like. In such a network environment, systems such as the one described above may not provide desired capabilities or operational flexibility.